Wichita Falls Circle Trail Handlebar Encounter With Bug Eyed Robot

Yes, those are my bike's handlebars you see here, looking as if they are in some sort of communication with a red bug eyed robotic device.

What the handlebars are actually looking at is one of the bike repair stations on the Wichita Falls Circle Trail.

If I remember right I have previously mentioned that Wichita Falls is an extremely bike friendly town. These ubiquitous bike repair stations are an example of this.

This instance of a Circle Trail bike repair station is located in Hamilton Park. Today's bike ride took me on the Circle Trail to Haiti, then the Nassau alley to Sikes Lake, then through the MSU campus, eventually to Harrison from whence a couple other roads take me to the aforementioned Hamilton Park and back to the Circle Trail which I roll all the way back to my abode, making for a multi-mile circle around the Circle Trail.

I returned to my abode to soon learn I had suffered another instance of incompetence. I once again forgot to add water to the rice cooker before turning it on and leaving it to cook without supervision. The rice cooker turns itself off when it detects an incompetent human forgot to add water, so no harm done, except to my confidence in my competence.

Tree, weed and grass pollen are supposedly high. But so far I am not in bad allergy mode. Knock on wood...

Is DFW's Madame X In NYC's Bellevue Psychiatric Asylum?

The day before 9/11 I got a text message informing me that the party sending the message was heading to New York City. I was advised not to reveal this sensitive information. Or to blog about the fact that this person was leaving Texas with NYC as the destination.

As such is what I was advised I shall not name who it was who advised me not to mention NYC was to be this person's location this week. Or the identity of this person.

And so, I shall refer to this temporary New Yorker as Madame X.

Madame X verbalized some nervous trepidation about going from the relative sedate calm of her irregular Texas location to the center of the known universe, New York City, a town which never sleeps, unlike a town like, well, Fort Worth, which rarely wakes up.

I had my phone in mute mode so I did not realize til late this afternoon I had received an urgent text message from Madame X, including the photo you see above, with text simply saying "NYC is stressing me out. Dunno how much more I can take. I may be having a nervous breakdown. Or pizza for dinner."

When Madame X and I communicated about her going to NYC, prior to her departure, with Madame X verbalizing her nervous breakdown fears, I suggested she Google Bellevue Psychiatric Asylum and have their emergency number entered into her phone in case she was in dire need of a straight jacket.

So, what with Madame X not indicating via her text message what it is we are looking at in the above photo, I have no way of knowing if this is the view from her hotel. Or Madame X's room in the Bellevue Psychiatric Asylum.

I suspect clarity on this issue will soon become clear....

David's 9/11 Happy Birthday Sushi Feast With Raw Scorpions

Last night nephew David called to thank me for that which the postal service had successfully delivered from Texas to Washington for his 9/11 celebration of turning nine years old.

Today some photo documentation of David's Happy Birthday arrived, with the only text explanation for the photos being "David's birthday choices" and "But he still hasn't eaten the scorpion he got at the fair".

The second photo is the one with David holding his un-eaten scorpion.

I did not know David's taste for seafood had expanded to include desert based seafood type creatures.

The fair referred to as the source of David's scorpion would be the Washington State Fair, also known as The Puyallup. (pew-el-up for those who don't know how to pronounce PNW tribal names).

The Puyallup takes place a short distance from David's home zone of Tacoma. In fact I think the city borders of Tacoma and Puyallup likely meet at a point or two. I think it is the Puyallup who operate the big casino which is in Tacoma.

David's Scorpion

Yesterday I mentioned the possibility the next time I'm in Tacoma, of David taking me to the Muckleshoot Casino Resort so as to experience that casino's Friday night seafood buffet, forgetting at that point in time, about the Emerald Queen Casino right in Tacoma.  I am fairly certain the Emerald Queen is a Puyallup operation. I know for certain I have had myself a mighty fine feeding at the Emerald Queen's seafood buffet.

I may remember a mighty fine Emerald Queen seafood  feeding at their buffet, but I recollect liking the Muckleshoot Casino's seafood buffet better, and have indulged in the Muckleshoot buffet version more frequently, likely maybe because its Auburn location is close by during times I stayed in Kent.

Now the absolute best, in my experience, seafood buffet-wise, in a Washington Casino, would be the one to be had far to the north of David's Tacoma location, up in my old home zone of the Skagit Valley, where there are two large casino resorts, one operated by the Skagit tribe, that being the Skagit Casino Resort with its The Market Buffet, the other by the Swinomish.

Both have excellent buffets, with the Skagit one on Bow Hill being the one I have likely partaken of more than any other anywhere. But, the seafood buffet at the Swinomish Casino and Lodge is the absolute best, seafood buffet-wise. The Swinomish do oysters the way my mom did oysters, back when mom did such things as fry oysters.

Speaking of seafood, back to David's Happy Birthday yesterday, let's take a look at the third photo delivered to Texas documenting David's 9 /11.

Sushi. How many nine year olds ask for sushi on their birthday? The above photo was the one with the text telling me these were "David's birthday choices". I can make out the Super Marina Plate of sushi, but I can not identify the pie type on the right, or the liquid product on the left.

Knowing David I doubt the pie type is something as mundane as pumpkin pie. Maybe it is something like sweet potato buttermilk pie. As for the liquid product, I have no guess.

Searching For Dozen Reasons To Lure Amazon To Fort Worth

A few days ago Amazon let the world know they are thinking about building a second company headquarters. HQ2, at some location other than Seattle.

Having recently eye witnessed Seattle in Amazon boomtown mode I can see why Amazon would think it a good idea to open a second headquarters. I don't know how much more booming Seattle can take before bursting, traffic and otherwise.

And then we have sleepy Fort Worth, a town which does nothing fast. A town which has been boondoggling along year after year with an ineptly engineered public works project the public has never approved, known as the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision, or America's Biggest Boondoggle.

A few days after the Amazon announcement I was amused by a typical Fort Worth Star-Telegram propaganda article about the subject, a screen cap of that article's headline is what you see above, "Amazon headquarters in North Texas? Let us count the ways".

 The first paragraph...

It is easy to rattle off a dozen reasons why Fort Worth is a great place to live — world class museums, the Trinity River trails, the world’s largest honky tonk, Joe T. Garcia’s — to name just a few.

Really? It is easy to rattle off a dozen reasons why Fort Worth is a great place to live? And these four examples of the alleged dozen reasons are your examples?

World class museums?

What town wearing its non-provincial big city pants refers to anything in its town as "world class"? World class? As opposed to what? National class? State class? County class? Yes, it is true, Fort Worth has a couple well regarded museums, brought to town early in the previous century after the wives of some local oil barons visited New York City, then returned to Cowtown pouting to their husbands that Fort Worth needed some museums if it was ever gonna be a town of culture. And so Amon Carter, and others, bought some artwork, built some museums in an area upwind from the rancid smelling Stockyards slaughter zone, and called this area the Cultural District, to differentiate it from the rest of the town which lacked culture.

The Trinity River trails?

Yes, in Fort Worth there are paved trails along many miles of the Trinity River. As the Trinity River flows alongside those trails, for the most part, it appears to be more of a big ditch than a river. And the water in that river ditch is murky, polluted, nasty. Not fit for fish, or fishing. This is not a river of the sort those working in the current Amazon headquarters are used to seeing. Nor are the Trinity River trails of the sort those working in the current Amazon headquarters are used to biking, blading and jogging on. Few trees, few if any, amenities. The Trinity Trails are no Burke-Gilman, in other words, words which those who work in the current Amazon headquarters will understand.

The world's largest honky tonk?

Does the Star-Telegram really think Billy Bob's is a big selling point making Fort Worth a great place to live? Or a reason a corporate headquarters might consider moving to Fort Worth?

Joe T. Garcia's?

Okay, one of the four reasons cited I agree with. I am not aware of there being any restaurant like Joe T. Garcia's being located anywhere near the current corporate headquarters of Amazon. Or anywhere in Washington. Joe T. Garcia's is one of the go to places I take any visitor who has never been to DFW or Texas before.

I can not help but wonder what the rest of the dozen reasons are which the Star-Telegram thinks make Fort Worth a great place to live.

One can not be the town's lifeless downtown with zero downtown department stores, with zero downtown vertical malls. How many vertical malls are in the downtown of Amazon's current corporate headquarters? How many department stores? And then there is that sprawling attraction known as Pike Place. Does Fort Worth have anything like Pike Place? Well, there was the Santa Fe Rail Market, but that only lasted a couple weeks.

Has Fort Worth fixed Heritage Park yet? After years of being a boarded up eyesore at the north end of the town's downtown, across the street from the country courthouse. A town which can not upkeep a park dedicated to its heritage really does not seem like much of a viable candidate to which a world class corporation would want to locate.

One of Amazon's new headquarters location criteria is easy access to outdoor recreation. Well, there are no real mountain trails in the DFW neighborhood. There are no ski resorts a short distance away. No cruise ships or ferry boats docking anywhere nearby.

Like to walk? Most Fort Worth streets have no sidewalks. Don't most world class cities with world class museums have world class sidewalks?

Fort Worth is particularly ill served by city parks. Most of which lack modern plumbing. And modern restrooms. Yet proudly sport an astonishing variety of outhouses. World class outhouses.

I recently spent time in Tacoma and Chandler, Arizona. Both towns, much smaller than Fort Worth, have multiple public pools. Pools with wave features and lazy rivers. Fort Worth has no such thing. But, the town does have happy hour inner tube floats, with music, in summer, in the polluted Trinity River.

Speaking of America's Biggest Boondoggle. Maybe if that ill fated much needed flood control economic development scheme had been actualized the way things get actualized in actual world class cities Fort Worth would currently be making use of its new fake waterfront, little lake, canals, whilst driving across its three little bridges connecting the town's mainland to an imaginary island.

And, if in 2017, the Trinity River Vision were something someone, like Amazon, or anyone, could actually see, maybe Amazon might consider making its $5 billion investment on that imaginary island.

Wouldn't that be something...

Good New Circle Trail Bridge Over Dribbling Wichita Falls

A week or so ago I read somewhere that the long awaited completion of the new Circle Trail bridge over Wichita Falls had been completed, and was ready to be crossed.

That and the upgraded, widened Circle Trail relocation under the I-287 freeway was also ready to be ridden.

And that Wichita Falls was once again turned on and falling water into the Wichita River.

So, needing to return books and get some new ones, this morning I took myself to downtown Wichita Falls, to the library to conduct some book business.

After which I removed my bike from its temporary back of the truck location and rolled my wheels from the library over the easy streets of beautiful downtown Wichita Falls, through the MPEC parking lots til I got to the Circle Trail.

By the time the 287 freeway came into view I could see the new trail was ready and waiting for me.

Soon after crossing under the freeway I got off the bike and took the picture you see of my handlebars aiming toward Wichita Falls and the new bridge over the falls.

I was not the only person visiting Wichita Falls today, as you can see below.

In the above location I am standing on the east end of the new bridge over Wichita Falls, looking west at a group of moms at the other end of the bridge. The moms were a trio of smokers who were pushing their kids in roller strollers. Smoking and pushing kids in roller strollers seemed sort of contradictory to me.

Wichita Falls did not seem to be falling at full falls today. The falls seemed sort of to be in dribble mode. When I first got near to the falls I thought they were turned off because I was not hearing the waterfall roar I have heard previous times when visiting Wichita Falls.

The Wichita Falls upgrade to the Circle Trail is a nice improvement. Now if only those three missing pieces of the Circle Trail's circle could be filled in, that would be a real good thing...

9/11 Anniversary Of 9 Year Old Nephew David's Birthday

On this day 16 years ago America and the rest of the world woke up to find America under attack.

Since that day America has been a nation perpetually at war, to varying degrees.

American children born after 9/11/2001 have never known an America which is not an America at war.

My nephew, David, is one of those children. 9/11, is David's birthday.

Today David is nine years old.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVID!

That is David you see above, sidled up to a fish bar, enjoying a libation whilst waiting for his order of calamari and tempura fried jalapeno rings. This fish bar is located in Tacoma, at Point Ruston.

I've never known a kid to be as big a fan of seafood as David is. During the course of my week in Washington last month I saw David consume the aforementioned calamari at Point Ruston, dungeness crab at Duke's in Tukwila, a big bowl of steamed clams at Birch Bay, and on various non-restaurant seafoodings I saw David smacking down smoked salmon, sushi, cod, oysters on the half shell and razor clam strips.

Next time I'm in Tacoma maybe I will get to take David to the Friday seafood buffet at the Muckleshoot Casino Resort for a Happy Birthday feeding...

Rolling Over MSU Paved Trail Maze Finding Colorful Mustang

I saw that which you see here this Sunday morning during the course of taking my handlebars on a roll around the neighborhood.

Sunday is not a school day, which makes Sunday a good day to ride my bike on the maze of paved trails (aka sidewalks) one finds on the MSU (Midwestern State University) campus.

Today one of those paved trails took me to the colorful horse you see here, standing on its hind legs. I believe this horse is a Mustang. You see variations of this all over Wichita Falls.

A Mustang is the MSU mascot.

I would think a Bicycle would make for a more appropriate MSU mascot. I don't think I've seen a live horse since I have been in this town. Not even in the 4th of July parade.

Wichita Falls is a bike friendly town. One of the more bike friendly towns I've ever biked in.

The Texas town I previously sort of lived in, Fort Worth, was not a bike friendly, or pedestrian friendly town.

Leaving my abode in Fort Worth I had to drive somewhere to find a decent paved trail to roll my bike wheels on.

Leaving my abode in Wichita Falls I am just a few feet from the Circle Trail, which is a paved trail about ten feet wide. From the Circle Trail I can opt to roll through the maze of paved alleys which course through my Caribbean neighborhood, usually taking the Nassau alley option to get to the paved trail which takes me to the paved trail which rolls around Sikes Lake.

That was the route I took today, to Sikes Lake, then crossed Midwestern Boulevard to roll around the MSU campus paved trails.

On an entirely different note. Usually I am mostly immune to getting bug bites. Currently my immunity seems not to be working. At this point in time I have five big bug bites. I do not think they are mosquito bites. I have not had one of those since I have been in Texas. I used to get mosquito bitten in Washington, so I know what those bites looked like. Maybe Texas skeeters are a different, bigger version which leaves a different, bigger bite mark.

I have just added bug spray to my shopping list...

David Columbia River Piloting Theo & Ruby In Eastern Washington

Til yesterday I did not get around to asking about the Labor Day Weekend at Lincoln Rock State Park, which was the Eastern Washington camping location David, Theo & Ruby opted to take their parental units to for the last weekend before the start of the new school year.

The route to Lincoln Rock State Park is over Stevens Pass. That is not David driving over Steven Pass you are looking at here. That is David piloting a boat on Lake Entiat. I do not know if David stopped the car at the Summit of Stevens Pass to partake in the summer activity of mountain biking via using the ski chair lifts to access mountain bike trails.

Theo & Ruby look totally okay with David piloting them at high speed on Lake Entiat. Lake Entiat is also known as Rocky Reach Reservoir. Rocky Reach Reservoir is a lake caused by the damming of the Columbia River by the Rocky Reach Dam.

Here we see Mama Michele & Ruby being towed at high speed by David.

Seems like just yesterday the parental units of David, Theo & Ruby were screaming at me to go no further out to sea with David & Theo in the extremely shallow waters of Birch Bay. Whilst above we see Ruby wild wave riding in the deep waters of one of the biggest rivers in the world with one of those formerly overly worried screaming parental units.

David, Theo & Ruby told their parental units they wanted to go camping at some point in time during the summer. The kid's parental units are not fans of the old fashioned primitive method of camping, so they opted to use the Washington State Park's new Glamping option of camping in a fully furnished cabin, complete with kitchen and bathroom.

The kids were successfully convinced they had gone camping whilst staying in a fully furnished luxury cabin. I am sure no one will disavow them of this notion anymore than anyone will let them know the truth about Santa Claus for a few more years.

I eye witnessed the new Washington State Park cabin option way back in 2008 when I met Spencer Jack for the first time, at Bay View State Park. Those cabins looked a bit more primitive than the one David, Theo & Ruby camped in in Eastern Washington.

Did it create any controversy when the state went into competition with the state's motel industry, I wondered, when I saw all the cabin options at Lincoln Rock State Park. Maybe the cabins are a private concession type deal. Such is not unheard of in the Washington State Park system.

I don't know if post 9/11 security overkill one can no longer take oneself on a self guided tour of Rocky Reach Dam. That dam has the best fish ladder I have ever walked beside, watching salmon and other fish struggle against the current to get themselves past the dam.

Just Googled to see if one can still tour Rocky Reach Dam to learn the answer is yes, according to the Wikipedia Rocky Reach Dam article...

The project is located on the Columbia River on Highway 97A, seven miles north of Wenatchee. The visitor center shows films describing the Columbia River. The "Look a Salmon in the Eye" exhibit from (May–September) is a fish viewing room. The Powerhouse includes exhibits on the fourth floor. The Rocky Reach dam is near the Lincoln Rock State Park a short distance upriver. The Rocky Reach Dam was featured on an episode of Discovery Channel's Dirty Jobs, hosted by Mike Rowe.

I don't know if Theo & Ruby took brother David to Rocky Reach Dam where they were able to look salmon in the eye. David has some issues with some creatures which live in water, such as sharks and crabs, particularly Dungeness crabs.

However, I have heard David speak favorably about salmon, including verbalizing wanting to go fishing for salmon. But, I don't know if David knows how big those salmon fish can get, so looking one in the eye may explain why I saw no photos documenting David in the Lake Entiat Columbia River salmon infested water...

Tacoma's Visible Point Ruston Thea Foss Waterway & Fort Worth's Invisible Trinity River Vision

If you are in Fort Worth, or one of its surrounding burgs, looking at that which you see here, you might be thinking it is some sort of new advertisement for the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision, what with mention made of Waterfront Condominiums, Waterfront Apartments, Shopping & Dining and a 2017 Sunfest & Summer Concert Series, along with Valet Parking.

Well, you would be wrong if that is what you thought. Not even America's Biggest Boondoggle is (so far) brazen enough with its absurd propaganda to tout such, what with the Boondoggle apparently unable to even manage to build three simple little bridges over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island.

No, this is a screencap from the Point Ruston website. Point Ruston is a free market private sector developer development on the Tacoma waterfront which has transformed a former industrial wasteland into a booming residential area and tourist attraction.

All done without employing, as project director, the unqualified son of a local congressperson to motivate the congressperson to secure federal funds to fund the project.

Tacoma's Point Ruston development at the north end of the Tacoma waterfront, and the Thea Foss Waterway development on the south end of the Tacoma waterfront have perplexed me ever since I visited them last month.

Perplexed me because it got me wondering how does such development take place in one town, while another town, Fort Worth, flounders along for years, trying to develop an industrial wasteland, whilst operating under the pretext the project is a vitally needed flood control and economic development scheme.

Yet, in Fort Worth, this "project" is not so vitally needed that the public is asked to support the project, you know, with money, but instead Fort Worth asks for charity in the form of federal funds in order to have sufficient capital to try to actualize their imaginary vitally needed flood control economic development project.

If Fort Worth's pitiful vision were actually viable wouldn't the free market come along and cause it to happen, such as what has happened at both ends of the Tacoma waterfront, during the past nine years, nine years in which little has happened, that anyone can see, with Fort Worth's embarrassing Trinity River Vision?

Soon after I returned to Texas, last month, I found myself freshly appalled by a new instance of Fort Worth Star-Telegram propaganda regarding America's Biggest Boondoggle. I blogged about this in Fresh Bridge Boondoggle Nonsense. A paragraph from the Part of Fort Worth’s Main Street closes as work revs up on Panther Island bridges article...

The private sector is interested in investing in the project. Last year, a Dallas company confirmed that it had bought nearly 2.5 acres on what will become part of Panther Island at Fourth and Main Streets for a 300-unit apartment community that is expected to cost $55 million. The development, Encore Panther Island, would be the first privately-funded development for the project.

The Boondoggle has spewed this "private sector interest" propaganda for years. Including mentioning, for years now, a Dallas company building an apartment community. After all these years the Trinity River Vision is still nothing anyone can actually see. If it were viable to build an apartment community why is it not under construction? If the Trinity River Vision is actually viable why is there not a lot of private sector building going on, such as what has taken place in Tacoma over the past nine years? And in other locations in America, locations which are actually economically viable and not a foolish poorly executed pipe dream?

Like I have already said, more than once, perplexing. And pitiful....

Ruby Takes Me To Seattle's Amazon Spheres

If I remember correctly yesterday I mentioned that I had been thumbing through the thumbdrive I took with me last month to Washington, returning to Texas with the thumbdrive full of photos, which I am now getting around to blogging, if the photos seem share worthy.

On August 14, returning to Tacoma after several days up north, at Birch Bay, Ruby directed us off I-5 to downtown Seattle, seeking burgers and pizza, which I earlier blogged about in Seattle Dick's Deluxe With Good Pay & Benefits & Long Lines.

When we exited I-5 I expected to soon be seeing the multi-billion dollar Amazon campus under construction, because ever since that construction began I have read it referred to as being the South Lake Union location of said campus. This long confused me because the area I thought of as South Lake Union had long been developed. And I knew there was no way eminent domain was being abused in Seattle to take existing property in order to build a corporate campus, which is what I have seen happen in corrupt towns in Texas, such as Fort Worth and Arlington, to build things like the Radio Shack corporate headquarters in downtown Fort Worth (quickly to go into failure mode in yet one more embarrassing Fort Worth boondoggle) and the Dallas Cowboy Stadium in Arlington.

So, after we left Dick's, Ruby directed our driver to the actual location of Amazon's headquarters. I had mentioned I would like to see the Amazon Spheres. The actual Amazon location turned out to be closer to Seattle's downtown core than South Lake Union.

To get to Amazon Ruby directed us south under the Seattle Monorail, south towards the aforementioned Seattle downtown core, and Westlake Center. Before we reached Westlake Center Ruby had the driver turn left, the left again, heading back north towards South Lake Union, with the Amazon Spheres soon appearing.

Ruby directed the driver to pull over and let she and me out of the vehicle to get a closer look at the Amazon Spheres and part of the Amazon corporate campus, under construction. Which explains why you see Ruby, above and below, in front of the Amazon Spheres.

Everywhere you look in Seattle, currently, you see construction cranes. I do not know if the two towers behind Ruby are part of the Amazon campus, or are new residential towers. Residential towers are sprouting up all over the downtown Seattle zone.

Eminent domain was not abused in Seattle to enable Amazon to build its corporate headquarters. But an old motel, I think maybe a Travelodge, but I am not sure, had been used by the city as a housing place for homeless people. Amazon needed that property, bought it, and then, instead of heartlessly booting the homeless, opted to use multiple floors of one of Amazon's new towers as a homeless shelter, providing services and help getting out of that homeless situation.

The homeless situation was the worst thing I saw when seeing Seattle in its current boomtown mode. Homeless encampments are shockingly visible, as one drives I-5 though downtown Seattle. One gets a good look at the homeless encampments when traffic on I-5 is in traffic jam mode, which is frequently the case.

The next time Ruby takes me to downtown Seattle I hope she is able to take me inside the Amazon Spheres...